Friday, March 10, 2017

Thursday Sunset

I installed an adjustable voltage regulator on Brigitta Thursday afternoon, hoping to get a reading close to 14V while riding at speed.  Like Fiona, my Bural with the '84 R80 Beemer engine, Brigitta's alternator is pretty anemic.

After a few attempts (each involving removal of the gas tank), I think I got the new voltage regulator putting out enough that I read at least 13.6V on the analog volt meter from VDO.  Not quite as accurate as a digital voltmeter and it reads 1 volt less than actual due to how it's wired up.

Before the new voltage regulator, it was reading perhaps 13.2V or so.

We'll see how that works out.  As I was doing the test rides though, the sunset potential looked pretty good so I switched to Scarlett, my 2014 Ural Patrol for sunset pictures.

 Soon after sun went behind the Front Range Mountains

 Several minutes after sunset

6 comments:

RichardM said...

Really nice sunset photos! We have snow today but at least it's above 0°F again...

redlegsrides said...

Thanks RichardM....too bad sunsetwx doesn't cover Alaska in terms of predicting good sunrises and sunsets.

Steve Williams said...

I've been to this post at least six times now. I see the title "Thursday Sunset" and click and find myself reading, "I installed an adjustable voltage regulator...". The title is strong and draws me in every time and then BOOM -- you got me again.

The first sunset is especially lovely. Makes me want to ride at the end of the day. The voltage regulator stuff just reminds me how badly I don't want to wrench on things anymore.

A new slogan for a blog graphic -- Ride More, Wrench Less. (Wouldn't be for URAL!)

redlegsrides said...

I have found, Steve, that titles which are fully descriptive tend to be too long or confusing.

I could break it up into specific postings but several postings published close together tend to get lost as folks just go to the latest one and leave it at that.

I'll try and be more specific.

Steve Williams said...

Don't mind me -- my troubles are my own. You do what you want.

I know what you mean about titles though. I hate having to resort to a title with punctuation: Riding through the Pennsylvania Landscape: Six Routes that are fun; State College to Wellsboro; State College to the Maryland Border; etc, etc, etc.

None of it really matters though does it? Blogging is freedom! Or fake news. Can't remember now...

redlegsrides said...

its the differentiation, Steve, that's causing the issue in my mind.

ride reports are one thing, maintenance quite the other. I'll figure it out....